The growth and success of digital postproduction in Australia is set to be cemented with the announcement yesterday by Australia’s longest established film laboratory, Atlab, that it will bring the world’s most advanced digital postproduction brand – Efilm – to Australia, opening in Sydney in October. It is planned to open a Melbourne branch of Efilm at Cinevex, in the New Year.
Atlab, recognised as the leading film processing and postproduction laboratory group in Australasia, including Cinevex in Victoria, has invested in world class new technology and assembled a dynamic local team to launch the creative facility in Sydney alongside its traditional services – providing for the first time a one stop location for the entire postproduction process.
‘Although we have been offering some creative and expert digital post services for sometime, including working on such projects as the sound for Happy Feet and Digital Intermediate work on films like The Home Song Stories and December Boys, the Efilm alliance provides in Australia the top end services and facilities Australia needs to meet the demands of this sector,’ Efilm Australia’s NSW General Manager Anthos Simon said.
Efilm Australia will be home to the highest grade Telecine suite and boast a creative and technical team with enormous experience working in all fields of digital production and with some of the world’s leading directors and DoPs.
The Postproduction, Digital and Visual effects (PDV) sector accounts for well over 20 per cent of the total income for Australia’s film and video production industry, and the sector has been expanding steadily for the past 15 years.
Efilm Australia will be well positioned as the Federal Government’s budget commitment is legislated to provide a 40 per cent expenditure rebate for locally made films and a 15 per cent rebate to international films spending in Australia, with an additional 15 per cent for expenditure on postproduction, digital and visual effects.
For the first time in Australia, filmmakers will be able to execute each point of the postproduction process in one location, working closely with Efilm and Atlab’s experts from pre-production through to print and delivery. There will be some 3,300 sq metres of laboratory and postproduction facilities alongside the 5,500 sq metres of Atlab’s printing and distribution facilities, a total area much larger than a football field, at Lane Cove.
The latest Spirit Telecine suite, with Da Vinci control and colour correction system, will be the centrepiece of the Efilm suite of services.
‘This equipment is recognised globally as the market leader and we have chosen it as the best suited for the type of high quality transfers and powerful, accurate colour correction Efilm will provide,’ Anthos says.
Efilm will absorb Atlab’s growing digital Design Department and long-established film resolution Digital Intermediate service and offer new services including standard and high definition (HD) rushes transfers and digital dailies, editorial services, tape-to-tape transfers and a range of other HD postproduction operations through to e-cinema mastering.
Efilm Australia will have access to the world’s best digital intermediate (DI) technology and systems through their partnership with the Hollywood sister company.
But it is the local expert and creative people that have been assembled and recruited for Efilm Australia that Anthos says will create the exciting and exceptional environment at Efilm.
The team includes pioneers of digital postproduction in Australia, famed colorists and HD experts with global experience and work on a host of productions ranging from The Matrix and Hero to Ten Canoes and soon Australia.
World renowned colorist Olivier Fontenay is joined at Efilm by experienced telecine colorists Kieran Bleakley and Luke Buckley, who, alongside Facilities Manager Catherine Duroux and Video Operations Manager Michael Robinson, each bring well over 10 years experience in the sector. Pioneer of digital film postproduction in Australia Rob Sandeman will be Efilm’s Digital Services Manager, and with Digital Supervisor Beck Dunn and lead designer Michelle Hunt, will head up a team of 18 creative and technical staff at Efilm.
Anthos, himself a 20 year veteran in the industry, said the creation of Efilm Australia emerged from many discussions with filmmakers and Atlab customers about their needs, and the new business was designed to really meet those requirements for local filmmakers.
‘We will offer filmmakers the chance to work truly closely with a team in this new creative digital facility, while continuing to utilise Atlab’s traditional film laboratory services. It will be a one stop shop, yet be an intimate and modular boutique solution,’ Anthos said.
[release from Avviso]